The City of Vinton, at the recent meeting of the Louisiana Municipal Association, was awarded an honorable mention for community achievement. They submitted paperwork detailing their work on Love’s Truck Stop and adding water and sewer extensions.

“We are very proud of the additions we did to that area, and happy that our work was recognized.” Mayor Kenneth Stinson said.

The council set the date for a public hearing for the introduction of the 2009 proposed budget. The meeting will take place on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008, at 6 p.m.

The council accepted a joint services agreement between the Calcasieu Communications District and the City of Vinton for service to the Vinton Fire Department and Ward 7 Fire Department for paging services. The communications district will install a device on an existing electrical tower to make the signal stronger and thus increase the reliability of the paging system in case of emergency.

State Representative Mike Danahay addressed the council and provided a wrap-up of what took place during this summer’s legislative sessions.

During the regular session, said Danahay, “Although it was the topic of much debate, we accomplished a lot more than just a pay raise.”

Danahay, who did not vote for the lawmaker pay raise, also highlighted the passage of a bill giving public school teachers a pay raise, bringing them up to the southern average. The fire and police departments will be given a raise next year as a result of legislative action.

“We made Louisiana very attractive to business now, and in fact, just today, the Governor announced a contract with an out-of-state aluminum plant. The plant has plans to move here to Louisiana, and will no longer need to truck or rail aluminum in.”

Income taxes were rolled back to the pre-Stelly Plan tax brackets resulting in a $359 million tax break for Louisiana taxpayers beginning next year.

Danahay said that as a result of the ethics session, the state’s ethics rating went from an “A” to an “A+” and Louisiana now ranks number one in the nation for ethics laws.

The representative also explained the capital outlay budget process that went under revision. It consists of a $1.4 billion list of items and projects that local cities wish to have at least partially funded by the state. Before this summer’s revised laws, the large-sum list was only backed by $350 million dollars in state funding. To make the request list now, local entities would have to match at least 25 percent of the project.

The City of Vinton is already benefiting from the ‘wish list’ - like with the bridge and road extension at Center Street.

In addition to the ethics and financial changes, legislators approved the restructuring of the Department of Labor. The department will now be heavily focused on workforce development and is now the more aptly titled Louisiana Workforce Commission. In an effort to attract more businesses to the state,the commission will react to business interests by training workers in various areas of concentration to meet the need for laborers. When the commission finishes the restructuring stages, the nearest local workforce center will be located in Lake Charles.